Professional Flight Training Show

[daydreamer]

Dear All

Having seen an advertisement for flight training show in Manchester where advice and seminars are provided for aspiring professional pilots (and intending to go) I was wondering if any members had been to such events and what to experience was gained.

Thanks
:)

[D McQuire]

Well daydreamer, I see the spelling vigilante's are not about today (...professional....). You are lucky.

Anyway, I went to one of these shows last year and I can thoroughly recommend going along if you are interested in a career as a pilot. All the big FTO's were there: Oxford, Cabair, BAE, MultiFlight plus some other overseas FTO's who knew the JAA situation even though they were not governed by it. The chance for me to get to sit down and have a face to face talk with people from these colleges was invaluable. There was also about 5 lectures about the industry in another hall - I went to 4 and they were all very interesting.

I really couldn't fault anything about the whole day. If you can get along do. Even if you are only thinking about embarking on this career a few years down the road, it is still worth going to.

[clear prop!!!]

Daydreamer

Yes, the spelling police are around… in the shape of McQuire!!!

However, I would agree that these things are well worth visiting.
Especially as you are in the local.

I made a 400 mile trip to one a few years back and it was well worth the effort. You can't gather enough information about this business and these shows give you loads.

Go with an open mind and remember that those sharp dressing, wide grinned FTO's are not registered as charities and are after your money, despite the apparent 'impartial' facade!!

[daydreamer]

Thank you Guys,

I will attend and make sure I can absorb as much information as possible.

Hopefully it wont be sales dominated and will give me the opportunity to get some professional advice on whether at 33 years of age the dream of flying commercially from ab-initio has been left a bit late.

Cheers
:)

[D McQuire]

Hi daydreamer,

Don't get too stressed about the age thing. There are quite a few 35years+ people who have started in ab-initio and succeeded. Search the wannabee forum and you'll find it is a question/thread that comes up about once a month.

That reminds me. In one talk at the show I went to, the main marketing guy from Oxford was very keen that the 'mature' student went the modular route rather than the integrated route . He never really explained why. He did mention something about the average age in an integrated course being pretty low but I suppose it would if Oxford convinced all the grey haired wannabees to go modular!

Anyway enjoy - worth traveling many miles for.

- D

[TopBum]

I went to the last two at Heathrow and I also throughly recommend them, I would also say that the lectures are the most valuable source of information of the whole exhibition bar none.

The guys from PPRuNe were pretty encouraging about starting out those starting out in their early thirties.:D

P.S. Should you attend the next one at Heathrow I recommend going by coach e.g. FlightLink. Alot cheaper, quicker and whole lot less aggro by train and tube. Both the tube station, ok their lifts then and the bus station are virtually in the same place. To find the stands for the hotel hoppa buses, walk pass the restaurant and carry on down to the pedistrian crossing, over the road and its on the right.

[Send Clowns]

Daydreamer - the oldest student I taught, as far as I know, was 42. That was 14 years older than I was at the time :D